Official DESE Communications

In schools that make rapid gains in student achievement, school and district leaders are actively engaged in monitoring implementation of sustainable improvement efforts, using this information to prioritize initiatives and strategies, communicate progress and challenges, seek input from staff, and continuously and systematically monitor progress and make mid-course corrections.

Advice for Setting up a System to Monitor Progress

Benchmarks only add value if there is a system for people to come together and reflect on them. Monitoring systems should be established at both the school and district level to assess if benchmarks are being met and the school is on track to meet identified goals and achieve its larger vision. Describing these systems in the sustainable improvement plan enables all school and district staff to know when progress monitoring will occur, who will be involved, what data will be collected and reviewed, and what will happen as a result.

Grounded in a cycle of continuous improvement, the specific goals of progress monitoring are to:

• Keep the sustainable improvement plan a living document that focuses and guides the school's work
• Use evidence and artifacts to reflect on the impact of strategies in the plan
• Use the results of this reflection to:
• inform next steps, including re-allocating resources and refining practice in order to have greater impact
• abandon what isn't working very quickly, scale up what is working, and evaluate the next phase of implementation

In turnaround schools that made gains, progress monitoring included:

• Daily monitoring of student work and teacher practice
• Weekly reflection on benchmarks in small teams, such as grade-level, content, student support, and instructional leadership teams
• Monthly reflection on schoolwide benchmarks by school leadership and/or the whole faculty
• Quarterly reflection of these same benchmarks at a deeper level
• Annual reflection at an even deeper level, to make adjustments for the year ahead (see guidance on annual reflection below)

District Support in Monitoring Impact

As noted in the District Systems section, districts play a critical role in supporting and facilitating sustainable school improvement efforts, including developing and implementing specific processes for monitoring the progress of schools that allows for quick, real-time response. District monitoring complements school-level monitoring systems to support implementation, to evaluate the effectiveness of the improvement efforts at the school, and use the results of data analysis to target or refine supports, including policies and resource allocation. Districts are encouraged to include district-level benchmarks within Executive Summary and Goals & Benchmarks section where applicable.

Guidance for Annual Monitoring of Progress

While effective progress monitoring occurs continuously throughout the year, schools must engage in an annual reflection and set the course for the year ahead in consultation with stakeholders. It is recommended that your team refer back to the Stakeholder Engagement section to refresh expectations for engaging stakeholders as critical partners in the implementation of the sustainable improvement plan.

At the end of each year, school teams and stakeholders need to reflect upon the successes and challenges of the past year, within the context of the school's sustainable improvement plan and the turnaround practices by asking:

• What worked? How do you know?
• What did not work? How do you know?
• How were stakeholders involved in this reflection process?
• How are district systems actively and meaningfully supporting the implementation of the plan?
• What strategic objectives and initiatives will you continue doing, revise, or abandon next year?

Once the annual reflection process is complete, schools should then reference the Executive Summary and Goals & Benchmarks sections for guidance on updating the key communication resources for the school's plan and resetting goals and benchmarks for the next school year.

While the primary purpose of updating the plan for the coming year is to ensure that everyone in the school is focused on the same priorities and outcomes as you move into the next school year, DESE's collection of the annual renewal documents and artifacts has multiple purposes:

Please note, DESE is not asking schools to rewrite their sustainable improvement plans. Instead, schools should follow the Annual Renewal Process for Sustainable Improvement Plans Submission Requirements to update the current strategies, describe what in the plan is being modified or changed next year, and what benchmarks and goals will be used to gauge progress, and to learn how and when to submit the final renewed plan.

Examples of some of the resources and protocols that SSoS Regional Assistance Teams frequently use with districts and schools they support appear in the Additional Resources at the end of this section.

Initial Sustainable Improvement Plan Requirements:

Flexible Format Submission

• School progress monitoring process: Describe the systems and processes the school will use to support and monitor the implementation and impact of the plan.
• Describe the school-level teaming structures or other processes that will support implementation and ongoing review of benchmarks. Discuss the types of teams, benchmarks and other data to be reviewed, frequency, and who will be responsible. Describe which aspects of these teaming structures and processes already exist, and which will be new to the school
• Describe how the school will ensure follow-through on mid-course corrections and other decisions that come out of the review of benchmarks.
• Provide candid explanations of possible barriers to achieving the benchmarks/goals and how they will be addressed
• District progress monitoring process: Describe the systems and processes the district will use to support and monitor the implementation and impact of the plan.
• Describe the district-level processes that will support the ongoing review of benchmarks. Discuss the types of teams, benchmarks and other data to be reviewed, frequency, and who will be responsible. Describe which aspects of these teaming structures and processes already exist, and which will be new to the district
• Describe how the district will ensure follow-through on mid-course corrections and other decisions that come out of the review of benchmarks
• Provide candid explanations of possible district-level barriers to achieving the benchmarks/goals and how they will be addressed

Annual Renewal Plan Requirements:

Flexible Format Submission

Summarize the results of your annual reflection process by describing:

• What worked? How do you know?
• What did not work? How do you know?
• What strategic objectives and initiatives will you continue doing, revise, or abandon next year?
• How were stakeholders involved in this reflection process?

Additional Resources Relative to Monitoring Progress

While not required, these resources may be helpful to reference when setting up and implementing systems to monitor progress.

• Instructional Leadership Teams Project: Resources, articles, and protocols to help establish and act on a shared understanding of implementing and monitoring continuous improvement with ILTs.

• Planning for Success: Based on the Massachusetts Planning and Implementation Framework, Planning for Success provides simple and accessible resources districts and schools can use to conduct an inclusive planning process including two resources for setting outcome measures and setting targets.

• District Data Team Toolkit: A comprehensive set of guidance, resources, templates, and protocols to help districts establish, grow, and maintain a culture of inquiry and data use that can inform decisions that impact teaching and learning, and ultimately improve the achievement of all students. Much of the information in the Toolkit can also be applied to school-level cycles of inquiry.

• Early Warning Indicator System: These resources can help a school or district use the Massachusetts Early Warning Indicator System (EWIS) and local data to identify, diagnose, support, and monitor student progress in grades 1–12. Resources include data available via Edwin Analytics, an Implementation Guide, and a monitoring tool to track student risk and progress throughout the year as part of a data-driven cycle of inquiry.

• Enhancing Data Use Throughout the School Year: Examples and artifacts from 10 districts

• School Teaming Structures Table

• School Teaming Structures Charts

• Reflection and Revision Protocol and Template